STUDY SUGGESTS SAFE INJECTION SITE SHOULD EXPAND TO REDUCE DRUG USE

VANCOUVER - The first study to gauge drug addicts' experiences at any
safe injection site suggests North America's only such facility should
be expanded to reduce public drug use and unsafe disposal of needles.

But, as the clock ticks toward the facility's licence expiring on
Sept. 12, the federal government remains tight-lipped about whether
the site will be allowed to continue operating under an exemption of
Canada's drug laws.

The study, which is published in the current issue of the
international scientific journal Addiction Behaviors, surveyed 1,082
injection drug users, 75 per cent of whom said the facility positively
changed their injecting behaviour.

Seventy-one per cent of respondents said using the facility meant they
weren't shooting up outside, while 56 per cent reported less unsafe
disposal of dirty needles.

Addicts who use the site -- called Insite -- inject their own heroin
or cocaine under the watchful eye of a nurse as part of a pilot
project that began three years ago.

Dr. Evan Wood, a senior author of the study, said Friday that HIV
rates have also come down in the drug-riddled Downtown Eastside since
Insite opened.

That means health-care costs have been reduced because it costs
taxpayers $250,000 to treat each person infected with the virus, he
said.

Wood said he is concerned that the Conservatives received a request to
continue the exemption six months ago and still haven't made any kind
of announcement so close to the licence expiring.

"I'm worried from a public health perspective about what will happen
if the site closes," said Wood, an epidemiologist at the B.C. Centre
for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and an assistant professor in the
department of medicine at the University of British Columbia.

"I think there will be such a backlash in Vancouver, when we go back
to the same patterns of needles in store fronts and people injecting
in public in the tourist areas of Gastown, that British Columbia will
probably not tolerate it for that long."

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement was not available for
comment.

Robin Walsh, a spokesman for the minister, said no decision has yet
been made on the fate of the site.

"The minister is undertaking assessment of the pilot project and the
results to date," Walsh said from Ottawa.

The success of Insite -- modelled after safe injection sites in
Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands -- has been hailed by police,
community leaders in the Downtown Eastside, the mayor of Vancouver and
four of the city's former mayors, including Premier Gordon Campbell.

"I would say that the international scientific community working in
addiction is holding its breath and watching to see what happens
here," Wood said.